Before you pay a visit to China, we highly recommend you read this article. It is a brief guide to different forms of accommodation in China.

In general, a hotel in Chinese is called 酒店 [jiu3dian4]，饭店 [fan4dian4] or 宾馆 [bin1guan3]. Although 酒店 can literally translate into “liquor shop” and 饭店 can literally be read as “food shop”, they are, in actual fact, a hotel equipped with a bar or restaurant.

However, whether a 宾馆 has a restaurant or a bar depends on its scale. So if you are looking for a hotel, don’t hesitate to walk in a hotel called ××酒店 or ××饭店.

A guest-house in China can be called 旅馆[lü3 guan3] or 旅店[lü3 dian4]. It has relatively cheap price compared with 酒店， 饭店 and 宾馆. Although it is a kind of budget hotel, some 旅馆 or 旅店 may have full facilities such as a restaurant.

Finally, a typical Chinese word for accommodation is called 招待所 [zhao1dai4suo3] which means hostel. Usually a 招待所 is very exclusive and belongs to a governmental bureau. For instance, 教育局招待所 (Education Bureau hostel) only offers service for the staff working in the education department or their relatives. Nowadays, 招待所 are increasingly less exclusive and provide accommodation and food for the public. This is a subsidized form of accommodation.